Wednesday, February 10, 2016

It’s
been a very busy two weeks of giving presentations all over the
country. And there has been a common question coming up in as diverse
places as Los

Angeles, Texas and NYC . “Are students more upset
today than they were in the past?”

My answer surprised a few folks. “Yes. They are.”

Students
are more easily upset and even prone to outbursts of anger more this
year than they have been in the past. People are even hearing more
gerunds coming up in discussions with them. Gerunds? Words ending in
“–ing” used in phrases such as “this #%&ing school”.

Students are reflections of our society and the result of the
culture’s culture or lack of it. And today’s national culture is one of
free floating antagonism, anger and attack. And this is not just in the political debates but is pervasive in our society. Students and the campus are not
separate or isolated from what is going on in our society. In
fact they bring the societal mood and the messages that are floating in
our society onto campus, into the halls and classrooms each and every
day.

And
right now our national mood is rather dour if not out and out nasty.
The nature of politics and everyday life are combative and aggressive.
Everywhere one turns the message is attack what you don’t agree with.
Even to the point of physical as well as verbal abuse. Just this morning
there were reports of pastors polluting the funerals or soldiers with
messages thanking G-d for killing them, people beating and torturing men
simply because they were born gay, politicians making outrageous claims
and attack ads. TV and radio pundits smearing and assaulting anyone and
everyone with whom they might disagree with attack words and statements using a very heated level of
discourse. I and you can
feel the anger and you can be sure our students do too.

I
am not a language prude in any way and have been known to use some
strong words myself but I am surprised how crass and low our use of
language has become. Words we would have only used when deeply provoked
or not at all are now common (and yes I chose that word purposefully) in
everyday discussion. The gerunds fly.

All
of this accompanied with the ever increasing costs of attending college
have made our students into angrier and less tolerant consumers. There
is a clear and consistent relationship between the cost of a product or
service and the demands that a consumer/customer places on it. The
higher the cost or the stress to pay for something, the greater the
demand that it perform at a level equal to expectations for the product
or service. So as tuition and the hidden tuition we call fees keep
climbing, the increases push expectations to higher levels This in turn generates more anxiety leading to greater levels of anger.

This increases even more when we do not meet the expectations of students or treat them as they feel they are due for all the money and personal investments they are making in our schools. And unfortunate, I have not been on a campus where the bulk of students feel the school is meeting the expectations it created to recruit them.

The
expansion of college throughout the society making college a rite of
passage to a job rather than to the upper and middle class has also made
higher education familiar and taken away the mystique of academia.
Familiarity does breed contempt in some cases and college is one of
them. As more and more people have gone to college and been in contact
with the denizens of academia, they have seen how some do have what
appears to be an easy life or are not responsive to their needs.

Couple
higher expectations with lowered behavior levels and that is a formula
for bad customer behavior that often comes out in the common statement
“I pay your salary.” So, yes, students are more demanding/difficult.

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About Dr. Neal Raisman

Neal Raisman is the leading expert on increasing admissions, retention and enrollment through enrollment management based on academic customer service excellence.

Since 1999,he has helped over 450 colleges, universities and college-related businesses in the US, Canada and Europe increase their admissions, enrollment and retention through his on-campus service excellence audits, workshops,training and presentations.